Outgoing chief executive takes executive chairman post
Spicerhaart, one of the leading estate agency groups in the UK, has announced that national operations director John Phillips (pictured left) and group managing director Antony Lark (pictured right) will become the group’s joint chief executive officers.
Phillips and Lark will be supported in their new roles by owner and current CEO Paul Smith, who is moving into a new position as executive chairman.
“This strategic decision marks a new era of leadership and reflects our continuing commitment to growth, innovation and digital transformation,” Smith stated. “Both Antony and John have a proven track record and complementary skills and they are the ideal candidates to lead our company.
“I will continue to play a very active role in strategic, financial, and digital decision making but will also offer extensive support to the wider team, our executive board, and our main board in the process.
“I believe very strongly in rewarding those who have consistently gone over and above in helping to make Spicerhaart the great success that it is today, and we have a dynamic duo in Antony and John, who both have strong backgrounds in financial services and will lead the business to new heights.”
Spicerhaart has seven agency brands – haart, Chewton Rose, Felicity J Lord, Darlows, butters john bee, Haybrook, and Howards. It also operates Just Mortgages, Valunation surveyors, Spicerhaart Corporate Sales, and Spicerhaart Land and New Homes.
Phillips is currently responsible for Just Mortgages, which he has helped grow from 100 brokers to 650 since he joined the company in 2015. He also runs surveyor, Valunation, Spicerhaart Corporate Sales, and Spicerhaart Part Exchange, and will continue to run all of these divisions while Lark will continue to run the estate agency and lettings side of the business.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved, transforming our financial services and surveying businesses, and ensuring that our teams are fully compliant, and process driven,” Phillips said. “We’re now very focused on growing both our number of employed and self-employed finance specialists and our wealth division.
“I feel very honoured that Paul – an industry legend – has entrusted the running of his business to Antony and me, as we too, are great believers in supporting others to come into the industry and helping them fulfil their dreams.”
Lark, who is celebrating a decade with the business, shared that he and Phillips had always worked closely together and that he saw the appointment as an opportunity to continue the work Smith had done in developing Spicerhaart.
“Over the last few years, Paul has spent a lot of time in educating us in the finer details of the business, giving us a very rounded knowledge of all aspects, and he will continue to provide strategic decisions as we move the business forward,” Lark said.
“We have been working on some very exciting plans to grow our partnership model, particularly in lettings, where we have very successfully trialled the model of employed staff members based at home.”
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